6:00PM – 8:00PM: Registration/Social Hour
| 6:45 – 7:45am | Breakfast and Welcome; Conference Registration |
| 8:00am | Welcome and Opening Remarks – Tim Rials (University of Tennessee) |
Circular Bioeconomy for a Sustainable Future
Moderator – Timothy Rials (University of Tennessee, USA)
| 8:10am | Kelly Tiller (Genera Inc.) |
| 8:50am | Sudhagar Mani (University of Georgia) Can future biorefineries drive the transition to a circular and sustainable bioeconomy? |
| 9:30am | Jeremy Luterbacher (Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering) Build back better: preserving and building on natural structures to make new biobased chemicals and materials |
10:10AM – 10:40AM: Break
| 10:40am | Michael Maughan (University of Idaho) Additive manufacturing with wood-based composites for building construction applications |
| 11:20am | Carrie Eckert (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) Accelerating microbial engineering towards a circular bioeconomy |
12:00 – 2:00PM: Lunch session
Larissa Fenn (Rayonier Advanced Materials)
The Journey toward Making Sustainable, Innovative Products from Trees
2A: Feedstock Systems Design
Moderator – Timothy Rials (University of Tennessee, USA)
| 2:00pm | Kankshita Swaminathan (HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology) Developing genomic resources and biotech tools to tailor perennial feedstocks for bioenergy and bioproducts |
| 2:30pm | Wilfred Vermerris (University of Florida) Biological nitrogen fixation on the aerial roots of sorghum enhances the sustainability of feedstock production |
| 3:00pm | Courtney Siegert (Mississippi State University) Productivity and ecosystem services of poplar in the Southeast: The role of functional and taxonomic diversity |
| 3:30pm | Rachel M. Emerson (Idaho National Laboratory) Quality-by-design influenced biorefinery development |
| 4:00pm | Edward Yu (University of Tennessee) Biomass feedstock supply chain modeling and decision tools for sustainable aviation fuels |
4:30PM – 4:45PM: Break
4:45PM-5:10PM: Flash Talks
| 4:45pm | Duber Garces (Auburn University) Impact of biomass sources and processing parameters on the properties of microfibrillated cellulose beads |
| 4:50pm | Xuan Li (University of Tennessee) Application of cellulose nanofibers in foliar fertilization |
| 4:55pm | Haoran Wang (Auburn University) Harvesting energy directly from agricultural products |
| 5:00pm | Mohammad Shah (University of Tennessee) GIS-based multi-criteria decision support model for energy crop system analysis |
| 5:05pm | Nahomy Pacheco (Auburn University) Sustainable development of microfibrillated cellulose and biochar composites for horticultural containers |
2B: Sustainable Cascading Products
Moderator – Nicole Labbé (University of Tennessee, USA)
| 2:00pm | Roberto Rinaldi (Imperial College London) Divide et empera: Key separations to unlock carbon-efficient utilisation of lignocellulose in advanced biorefineries |
| 2:30pm | Ananda Amarasekara (Prairie View A&M University) Sodium levulinate cellulose |
| 3:00pm | Mi Li (University of Tennessee) Design cellulose/metal-organic framework hybrids for functional adsorbents and luminescent sensors |
| 3:30pm | Z.-Y. Cheng (Auburn University) Untraditional usage of forestry and agriculture products as energy sources and engineering materials |
| 4:00pm | Julie Willoughby (TerraSafe Materials, Inc.) Elevating biomaterials for packaging |
4:30PM – 4:45PM: Break
4:45PM-5:10PM: Flash Talks
| 4:45pm | Kaung Su Khin Zaw (Georgia Institute of Technology) Graphene oxide membranes and membrane cascades for lignin separation and fractionation from biorefinery streams |
| 4:50pm | Jiandong Wei (Auburn University) Development of high-performance polymer-biomass composites for enhanced energy storage capacities |
| 4:55pm | Polina Zaytseva (Colorado State University) Electro-enhanced anaerobic digestion to increase production of volatile fatty acids |
| 5:00pm | Nimat Ajide-Bamigboye (University of Tennessee) Agricultural impact of multi-contaminant exposures on bioplastic degrading Bacillus pumilus B12 metabolomes |
| 5:05pm | Abigael Wahlen (Georgia Institute of Technology) Machine learning-aided real-time volatile organic compounds detection through robust colorimetric sensor arrays |
5:10PM – 8:30PM: Reception and Poster Session
7:15AM – 8:15AM: Breakfast
3A: Low-Carbon Advanced Manufacturing
Moderator – Lu Wang (University of Tennessee)
| 8:30am | Feng Jiang (University of British Columbia) Sustainable functional bioproducts development using lignocellulose |
| 9:00am | Stephen Chmely (Penn State University) Harnessing the potential of plant-based polymers to 3D print fiber composites |
| 9:30am | Bashir Khoda (University of Maine) Viability of cellulose nanofiber in algal bio-ink for 3D bio-printing applications |
10:00AM – 10:30AM: Break
| 10:30am | Hongli (Julie) Zhu (Northeastern University) Promoting electrochemical rates by concurrent ionic-electronic conductivity enhancement in thick cathode electrodes using nanocellulose additives |
| 11:00am | Fatimatu Bello (Auburn University) Application of nanomaterials in bio-composites for packaging application |
| 11:30am | David Harper (University of Tennessee) Advancing the use of molded natural fiber composites in auto applications |
3B: Responsible, Carbon- and Cost-Effective End-of-Service-Life Solutions
Moderator – Nour Abdoulmoumine (University of Tennessee)
| 8:30am | Todd Reynolds (University of Tennessee) Engineering subtilisin enzymes to depolymerize poly-L-lactic acid plastic films |
| 9:00am | Danielle Bartholet (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) Building a computational and experimental toolkit to predict microbial performance in large-scale bioreactors |
| 9:30am | Zhaohui (Julene) Tong (Georgia Institute of Technology) Data-driven biowaste valorization processes for biochemicals and biofuels |
10:00AM – 10:30AM: Break
| 10:30am | Sheldon Q. Shi (University of North Texas) Pyrolysis of biomass to carbon through self-activation: theory and applications |
| 11:00am | Xianglan Bai (Iowa State University) Upgrading biobased carbon for sustainable chemicals and materials |
| 11:30am | Thomas Elder (USDA-Forest Service, Southern Research Station) Adsorption of heavy metals by biochar from lignocellulosic materials |
12:00PM – 1:30PM: Lunch
4A: Metrics for Measuring Sustainability
Moderator – Erin Webb (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
| 2:00pm | Esther Parish (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) Evaluating tradeoffs between environmental and socioeconomic indicators of sustainability |
| 2:30pm | Joe Sagues (North Carolina State University) Leveraging the bioeconomy for carbon circularity and removal |
| 3:00pm | Juliana Vasco-Correa (Penn State University) Open-source techno-economic models for decision-making in biorefining research and development |
| 3:30pm | Richard Venditti (North Carolina State University) Gauging the public’s perception of sustainability of paper packaging containing recovered materials |
4B: Valorization of Renewable Carbon Resources
Moderator – Julie Carrier (University of Tennessee)
| 2:00pm | Ellen Wan (University of Missouri) Laser-induced graphene from lignin and its multifunctional applications |
| 2:30pm | Jikai Zhao (Kansas State University) Optimizing feedstock pretreatment for sustainable biorefineries |
| 3:00pm | Kalavathy Rajan (Texas Tech University) Tuning the thermoplasticity of recycled wastepaper films for fully biobased flexible food packaging |
| 3:30pm | Tyler Barzee (University of Kentucky) Valorization of bourbon stillage through production of tunable pure mycelium materials |
7:00PM – 9:00PM Conference Dinner: Chris Tindal (TLA, LLC)
6:45AM – 7:45AM: Breakfast
Industry Day
Moderator – TBD